{"id":2550,"date":"2016-06-05T23:30:00","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T04:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=2550"},"modified":"2026-02-17T21:05:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T03:05:17","slug":"a-night-in-frederickson-field-house-feb-8-1966-oklahoma-city-university-basketball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fredsportsextra.com\/?p=2550","title":{"rendered":"A night in Frederickson Field House-Feb 8, 1966; Oklahoma City University basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"

A graduate of Oklahoma City University, the little school at Northwest 23rd and Blackwielder in my hometown, I was an ardent fan of the namesake college of OKC. I grew up within two miles of the campus, having lived my first ten years in an inner-city neighborhood near Linwood Boulevard and Northwest 6th Street. After a move in 1964. My address at Northwest 21st and Flynn allowed an easy walk to the University. Until my time to drive in 1969, many a night and Saturday afternoon, I would take the five-block walk from my home to Frederickson Field House to watch the best college basketball team in the state of Oklahoma.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

From the age of nine, I attended almost all home games of the Chiefs, which continued until my late fifties. Many times I attended with my friend, Skipper Smith, my first best friend in my life. I have witnessed many of the most significant moments of Oklahoma City University basketball, from the mid 1960\u2019s to the late 2000\u2019s. OCU, as a member of the NCAA Division One, was a powerhouse in college basketball, with numerous appearances in the NCAA tournament, the leading scoring team in the country for many years, and various All-American basketball players. The Chiefs put in their fair share of players into the NBA. When the school moved the athletic program to the NAIA, OCU became a stalwart in national championships in small colleges, with the highest number of men\u2019s titles and the longest win streak in NAIA history. Those records still stand today in NAIA ball.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember a lot of those first games I attended as a four or five-year-old back in the late 1950\u2019s, but I do remember going to, with my Dad, the All-College tournament in downtown OKC at the Municipal Auditorium. Take Hub Reed, All-American in 1958, and I had a glimpse of his play, even as a tike. Hub Reed, an All-American, played many years in the Association as the starting center for the Cincinnati Royals. Hub was the first opponent of Wilt Chamberlain play the man as a non-bigoted post player in college. Wilt said so after their meeting in the NCAA tournament. They played against each other many times as pros and were great friends.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I will be writing on various games and teams I watched I as a fan, a student at OCU, and an alumni. This is a personal project for me and I would hope that somebody would think what I write is interesting. If not, that is good too. Sports is personal, and I get that.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This first article looks back at a significant game from the 1965-66 season, one of the greatest teams that OCU put on the floor in their history. Head Coach back in 1966 was Abe Lemons, the funniest man in basketball. Good old Abe was a hell of a basketball coach besides a first rate comedian. It was my pleasure to watch his teams perform at OCU. It was great to have him teach a basketball class on campus too.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Date:\u00a0 February 8, 1966-\u00a0 Oklahoma City University vs Nebraska University-Lincoln (ranked #9 in the nation at game time)<\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n

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My Dad was great for me.\u00a0 He was a sportsman, a former high school and college athlete who played two sports at a\u00a0major division\u00a0school in Shreveport, Louisiana.\u00a0 A starting half\/full back on one of the biggest high schools in Oklahoma (Classen), he was also\u00a0on the starting five of the basketball team for the Comets in 1938-39.\u00a0 As for his folly and the love of life over book learning of the times. My Dad was, as you might say, an old man of twenty when he graduated from Classen in 1939.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Today, Dad, as a student,\u00a0would have a classification of being a\u00a0\u201clearning disabled\u201d student.\u00a0 Not a good reader,\u00a0he did build his\u00a0first boat, from plans he purchased, at\u00a0age sixteen.\u00a0A person of doing and not reading, he was offered a scholarship to play football and basketball at Centenary College and accepted, and spent his freshman year in Louisiana as a\u00a0member of both teams.\u00a0 At the time, frosh were not allowed to play on the varsity. Centenary played a difficult schedule, and he was scheduled to play a significant role\u00a0the next year on the football\u00a0team.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As a result of the war rumblings in the world, my Dad was told he could join the Army and play for an Army division team, so he quit school to serve.\u00a0 My point?\u00a0 My Dad loved athletics and he was the one who encouraged me love sports, regardless of the sport.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

My father\u00a0was, besides a man who could build boats (some as large as twenty-foot cabin cruisers),\u00a0a boat racing daredevil, winning trophies and money.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0boat he raced, he built from scratch.\u00a0\u00a0So on that morning of February 8th, my Dad drove over to Frederickson Field House and bought two of the last tickets remaining for\u00a0the Nebraska\u00a0Huskers\/Chiefs\u00a0game. The Cornhuskers (15-2), the best team of the Big Eight at the time, leading those standings on that day,\u00a0were\u00a0a tough and\u00a0veteran team with a up and coming head coach, Joe\u00a0Cipriano.\u00a0 Cipriano would become the\u00a0most winning coach in Husker history when he passed away from cancer\u00a0fourteen years later, still the head coach in Lincoln.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nebraska had played the\u00a0previous evening against Oklahoma, beating the Sooners in the Fieldhouse in Norman 85-81.\u00a0\u00a0A back-to-back in 1966 was not unheard of.\u00a0 For a late-season non-conference game with Oklahoma City, a sell-out crowd of 3,500 was assured and I thank my Dad for getting us the two tickets to watch the game. It might be noted that the Chiefs rarely sold out their games, and this would be the first game\u00a0in my remembrance \u00a0that the section, row, and seat would be important, no matter that our seats were up in the corner of Frederickson.\u00a0 If you had ever watched a game in Frederickson, you would know there were no bad seats and every seat was like being on the first row.\u00a0 That night, my seat was my seat and it was taken.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The game was everything it was built up to be.\u00a0 Both teams were loaded with talent, both coaches were on the top of their game, and the play would be of\u00a0what good college basketball was\u00a0in the early to mid 60\u2019s.\u00a0The black athletes were now on the best teams, and OCU was one of the first in the southwest part of the country to take to these athletes.\u00a0 Nebraska was playing the black player in the Big Eight as the conference was becoming the modern league we have come to know.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There would be none of\u00a0that shitty stall ball thank you Mr. Iba, still filling the job as head coach\u00a0up in Stillwater.\u00a0No, both teams, the Huskers and the Chiefs,\u00a0would play the game for the fans in the house, a run and gun excitement every second of the\u00a0game.\u00a0 A game\u00a0void of strategies that a lessor opponent had to use so not to get run off the court. Yes Mr. Iba, as much as I respect you as the most significant coach in college basketball history (with respect to Neismith), \u201cyour hold the ball\u201d and run the clock out bullshit that you used in the later part of your years at Oklahoma State, \u00a0trying to hide your inferior teams and ball players from getting beat badly.\u00a0 Fact\u00a0is, \u00a0Oklahoma State\u2019s basketball program sucked in Iba\u2019s last decade, and for that matter, so did the big dog Sooners of the\u00a0Oklahoma University in Norman.\u00a0 From 1953 through 1973, OCU was the premiere college basketball team in Oklahoma. Check the records and that is a fact.\u00a0 Abe Lemons, OCU\u2019s coach, was a part of Mr. Iba\u2019s coaching tree, playing for a former Aggie player of Mr. Iba, Doyle Parrick, who was Abe\u2019s coach at Oklahoma City.\u00a0 Parrick had moved on to Norman to coach Oklahoma.\u00a0\u00a0Mr. Iba would have done his school a good deed if he had hired Lemons once he began to win on NW 23rd Street.\u00a0 Fact of the matter, Mr. Iba and\u00a0Abe were best of friends and Mr. Iba would travel to Frederickson Fieldhouse\u00a0on occasions to watch OCU play various teams after his retirement and up to his death.\u00a0 It was on one of\u00a0these occasions I got to meet Mr. Iba,\u00a0on a\u00a0night my Uncle John Pratt\u00a0(a great high school coach at Midwest\u00a0City High in Oklahoma and former student\/graduate assistant for\u00a0OSU in 1949-50), and Coach Lemons visited with the Iron Duke\u00a0in the southwest corner of Frederickson before a ball game.\u00a0 I was in on the basketball conversation.\u00a0 It was an honor of my sports life.<\/span><\/h4>\n

I can remember sitting with\u00a0my Dad in that upper corner seat that night.\u00a0 I have a thing with coming to sporting events early, real early.\u00a0 We were one of the first to walk into the not yet but future\u00a0historic Frederickson that night, finding\u00a0our reserved seats\u00a0on the wooded bleacher row, the black of the seat number standing out on the varnished wood that we would put our ass on for three hours.\u00a0 I was, as a thirteen year old, in my church, ready for my serving of the most important food for my being, OCU basketball.\u00a0 Even at that time, I knew that I would attend the school in five years, to become member of the student body of my most cherished school.\u00a0 That was hard as I was also one hell of\u00a0a Oklahoma Sooner fan, with OU football, just\u00a0as important as OCU basketball.\u00a0 Anyone that knew me at the time would attest to the fact that I never missed an OCU or OU football game, either live and in person or listening on the radio, usually WKY radio sports I might say.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Watching my\u00a0Chiefs warm up to play a\u00a0most important contest\u00a0that night, I knew it would be a game that would matter for both, but especially the Chiefs.\u00a0\u00a0 NCAA Tournament bids were not like of today. You could be one of the top thirty teams in the country and you still\u00a0didn\u2019t have\u00a0your ticket to the NCAA tournament punched. \u00a0OCU as an independent, needed to beat the best teams on their schedule, as was\u00a0the Huskers.\u00a0\u00a0Nebraska would\u00a0have to\u00a0win the Big Eight to go. Second place teams in conferences were not going to the tournament.\u00a0 As NU was ranked 9th\u00a0hitting the hardwood of Frederickson that night.\u00a0Coach Lemons,\u00a0under his breath was pissed that his Chiefs were being hosed by the voters and didn\u2019t show up in the list of\u00a0the\u00a0Top Ten\u00a0ranked teams until a week later.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u201cI\u2019d just as soon stay out of their (Top Ten).\u00a0 The only time I want to be rated is at the end of the season.\u00a0 Those ratings are nice for your scrapbooks.\u00a0 You can say \u2018look, I was #10\u2014for two days. And I was fired two days later.\u201d\u00a0 Yes, Coach Abe was not happy coming into the game not ranked as one of the best in the country.\u00a0 At season\u2019s end, the Chiefs got their due, ranked #3 in the country by the major polls.\u00a0 The game with Nebraska had a lot to do with that high ranking.\u00a0 Nebraska went on to finish the season at 20-5, second in the Big Eight.\u00a0 OCU would again be in the NCAA tournament at seasons end.\u00a0 Nebraska would stay home.<\/span><\/h4>\n

For OCU, a win would be a feather in their hat, putting a prestigious win on a Top Ten team. With a 17-3 record, the Chiefs had shown to be the top independent in the South\/Midwest, and with a group of high end college stars,\u00a0 they were looking forward to win another game at home.\u00a0 The Chiefs were undefeated at Frederickson, and to a player they expected to stay that way.<\/span><\/h4>\n

With one of the best reputations in the country, Head Coach Abe Lemons was always filling his schedule with the better teams, home and away.\u00a0 And remember, at the time, Frederick Field House, was one of the finest college basketball venues in the country, and for the state of\u00a0Oklahoma, the newest and best.\u00a0 OU\u2019s Fieldhouse in Norman was larger, but, as I will use the word again, a shitty rat hole to play in.\u00a0 Sure, the crowds that filled the place at OU were loud and great, but only for conference games against the better teams, like Kansas and Kansas State and for sure Bedlam.\u00a0 OU was not a basketball school for many reasons, and one was their home court.\u00a0\u00a0The Fieldhouse on the\u00a0campus just north of Owen Field was\u00a0old, smelly, and for\u00a0the current day in\u00a01966, rather small for\u00a0a big time college team.\u00a0 Hello Alvin Adams and not one year later.<\/span><\/h4>\n

As for the Pokes home court\u00a0in Stillwater, Gallagher Arena was historic, yes, but was rarely filled except for the Bedlam games.\u00a0 As of\u00a0this day and age\u00a0with the last season of Travis Ford\u00a0 still on our minds, the basketball program in Mr. Iba\u2019s last ten years was down.\u00a0\u00a0Enough that the\u00a0final rumblings brought down the old coach and the program was not really revived until Coach Lemons great assistant coach that night, Paul Hansen, took over the program and took the Cowboys to\u00a0a Big Eight title in the 1982-83 season.\u00a0\u00a0From 1954 to Hansen\u2019s 1982 team, the Pokes made two NCAA tournament appearances, no\u00a0conference\u00a0titles and\u00a0did not win\u00a0NCAA\u00a0tournament\u00a0game in that span.\u00a0 Fact of\u00a0the matter, OSU finally\u00a0won an NCAA\u00a0tournament game in the 1990-91 season, under another great coach Eddie Sutton. The Pokes went 36 years of drought in men\u2019s basketball.<\/span><\/h4>\n

The Chiefs were a \u201cloaded\u201d team in 1965-66.\u00a0 Jerry Lee Wells, a senior guard from Glasglow, Kentucky, was as good a playmaking\/scoring guard in the nation that year.\u00a0 Coach Lemons commented that Wells \u201cwas an All-American if there ever\u00a0was.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0Wells did make\u00a0All-American\u00a0after the\u00a0 1966 season, having\u00a0averaged 27 points a game as OCU was the third highest scoring team in Division One.\u00a0 Gary Gray, another of\u00a0Abe\u2019s Native American player, a Deleware\u00a0sharp shooter, from Fort Cobb, Oklahoma, was the shooting guard, and was scoring over twenty points a game. Gray would lead the Chiefs in the following year with a 27.5 ppg (6th best in\u00a0major college)\u00a0and would also make All-American in that 1966-67 season.\u00a0 Gray played in the NBA after graduation.\u00a0 Gray was much the better scorer than Wells, but not the basketball player.\u00a0 Many on the national level called Gray a \u201cscoring machine.\u201d \u00a0 Both guards for OCU that night would and could go all-out for forty minutes if needed.\u00a0 Add a three point line Gray would have average upwards of 35 points a game as his long range shooting was on par with anyone in the country, including the Pistol. No team in the country could claim better starting guards. Yes maybe as good, but not better.<\/span><\/h4>\n

The big man\u00a0for OCU\u00a0ws the country\u2019s leading rebounder in James Ware.\u00a0 \u201cWeasel\u201d Ware was as good a college rebounder as you could find in the day.\u00a0 And he would let everyone in ear distance know.\u00a0 In the big meeting later in the year Ware bragged about how he would dominate the great front court of the Miners of Texas Western, the eventual National Champs.\u00a0 In the NCAA tournament\u00a0game, Ware had to eat his words as David \u201cBig Daddy\u201d Latin out played Ware in the 89-74 defeat for the Chiefs.\u00a0 To be fair, the Chiefs had just come off a trip to Hawaii a few days earlier and fatigue in the second half was a key for the loss. The\u00a0Chiefs fell behind at half and never could catch up\u00a0\u00a0For OCU and Texas Western to play in the NCAA a few weeks\u00a0after the Huskers game one must remember that\u00a0many schools still refused to recruit and play the black man.\u00a0 Texas Western was the first team to win the Championship with five blacks starting and Kentucky was their Lilly white opponent. Time were changing. But at\u00a0UK, and even in Texas (UT-Austin), the color barrier still held the day. (For the record, Nebraska was an integrated team and OCU started \u00a0three black players.)<\/span><\/h4>\n

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The big man for OCU ws the country\u2019s leading rebounder in James Ware.\u00a0 Ware was as good a college rebounder as you could find in the day.\u00a0 And he would let everyone in ear distance know.\u00a0 In the big meeting later in the year, Ware bragged about how he would dominate the great front court of the Miners of Texas Western, the eventual National Champs.\u00a0 In the NCAA tournament game, Ware had to eat his words as David \u201cBig Daddy\u201d Latin outplayed Ware in the 89-74 defeat for the Chiefs.\u00a0 To be fair, the Chiefs had just come off a trip to Hawaii a few days earlier, and fatigue in the second half was a key factor in the loss. The Chiefs fell behind at halftime and never could catch up.\u00a0\u00a0For OCU and Texas Western to play in the NCAA, a few weeks after the Huskers\u2019 game, one must remember that many schools still refused to recruit and play the black man.\u00a0 Texas Western was the first team to win the Championship with five blacks starting, and Kentucky was their all-white opponent. Time were changing. But at UK, and even in Texas (UT-Austin), the color barrier still held the day. (For the record, Nebraska was an integrated team and OCU started \u00a0three black players.)<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

The fourth clog in the OCU starting line-up was Charles \u201cBig Game\u201d Hunter, a 6\u20196 power forward that all would garner honorable mention All-American honors the following year.\u00a0 Hunter gave OCU four first line players that could have started for any team in the country. Hunter was, as Coach Lemons would say, \u201ca baller\u201d.\u00a0 After the season, \u201cBig Game\u201d was drafted by the Boston Celtics, but suffered a severe knee injury in pre-season workouts, and his competitive career was over before he played a regular season in the Association.\u00a0 To note,\u00a0 Hunter was close friend of Jerry Lee Wells.\u00a0 Both, from Kentucky high school basketball ranks, took the scholorship from OCU, even though he was the first African-American to be offered by Louisville University.\u00a0 Big Game Hunter was BIG GAME.<\/span><\/h4>\n

The game was as exciting as the build up.\u00a0 I do remember standing up most of the game, as the Chiefs pulled out the win as Jerry Lee Wells scored two field goals in the final four seconds in overtime as OCU downed the Huskers 85-81, the same score that\u00a0NU\u00a0had\u00a0beaten OU the day earlier.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Final\u00a0statistics had\u00a0Jerry Lee\u00a0Wells\u00a0with 27 points, Gary Gray with 22, Charles Hunter 18 and James Ware 14.\u00a0 Ware pulled down 22 rebounds in the game as he dominated the boards as usual. Those four were, in the end, just too much for Nebraska on that night in February.<\/span><\/h4>\n

(More on the 1965-66 Chiefs later)<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"OCUNeb1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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A graduate of Oklahoma City University, the little school at Northwest 23rd and Blackwielder in…<\/p>\n

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